Freescale Japan Chief Breaking Barriers, Storming Castles

Japan, once the leader in the high-tech world, has lost that distinction. "Japan needs to put that giant belt back," says David Uze, president of Freescale Japan, "by leading the world in IoT."

TOKYO — In the semiconductor industry, four years can feel almost eternal. That’s how long it’s been since I first met David Uze, president of Freescale Semiconductor Japan, who had barely started at Freescale after a successful career at Dell and AMD in Japan.

The ensuing years have seen market shifts, technology changes, and new players taking over. In the midst of all this turmoil, Uze and his Japanese team have begun making a difference in a local Japanese market notorious for its resistance to change -- any changes, but especially those imposed by foreigners.

Assuming Freescale’s revenue in 2020 at $5 billion, Uze set his Japanese team’s goal at $1 billion revenue growth by then. Since Freescale’s net sales in the calendar year 2013 already reached $4.19 billion, 20 percent by 2020 might not be possible. But the goal of $1 billion in 2020 remains unchanged, said Uze during an interview this week.

At the half-way point, Uze sees his team well on its way, by sticking to such fundamentals as creating opportunities for face-to-face customer meetings and requiring a salespeople to make at least 15 sales visits a week.

The second phase of Freescale Japan’s growth, however, likely requires a larger vision and different strategies. Uze is concentrating on the Internet of Things, urging Japanese vendors to collaborate in building an exemplary IoT city in Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic Village.

I asked if this initiative is something promoted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. No, he told me. “That’s what I want, and what Japan needs. I want people in Japan to think about it.”

Japan, once the leader in the high-tech world, has lost that distinction. “Japan needs to put that giant belt back on, by leading the world in IoT.” There’s no better opportunity than the Tokyo Olympics to prove that to the world, in Uze’s view.

Emotional sales
Uze, full of energy, still talks like a machine gun, but he also knows exactly when to sit back and listen. He has a knack of getting his ideas (and passion) into people’s heads. Uze, in fact, is a master of “emotional sales” -- first with his own team. Now his team is pitching customers in Japan.

Back in 2010, the world was still struggling to find a way out of the 2008 financial meltdown. On March 11, 2011, the Great Earthquake and Tsunami hit Japan. Freescale’s business in the Japanese market hit rock-bottom in 2012.

Hard times tend to expose people’s true colors. Five days after the earthquake hit, Uze rented a van, loaded it with batteries, food, diapers, and other essentials and drove more than five hours, through continual traffic jams, to Freescale’s employees and their families in Tohoku. He did this despite a ban by the HR department at Freescale Japan on entering the disaster zone.

Uze’s defiant rescue mission helped him win over his team in Japan. Now he’s seeing a turnaround, with Freescale Japan’s revenue growing at an estimated 15 percent through 2017. He’s confident that this rate will hold through 2017, because his team has already secured some big design wins with Japanese carmakers.

Freescale Japan’s chip business is now outpacing the industry’s average. Of particular note is a more than 30 percent increase in automotive MCU revenue in Japan in 2013 over the previous year.

Every foreign chip company, not limited to Freescale, saw an opportunity to milk the 3/11 tragedy that especially hurt Renesas Electronics -- a key supplier of critical automotive MCUs to Japan’s automotive giants.

I do want to clarify that David Uze, during the interview, didn't even talk about the actions he took right after the earthquake/tsunami. The anecdote was brought up by one of the Freescale Japan employees.

I wanted to mention it in the story because that seems to illustrate Uze. He leads not just by talking about "doing the right thing." He actually does it himself and leads by examples.

The right response to a disaster situation can be a huge benefit to a company's reputation.

John Patterson's actions during the Dayton Flood of 1913 rescued the company from an anti-trust suit, http://home.paonline.com/knippd/whoisncr/Patterson.htm (and kept him out of jail). The actual relief was through a legal appeal, but there seems little doubt that the verdict was swayed by public opinion.

Interesting story. Freescale has done some classy stuff in emergency situtions, such as Uze's actions during after the earthquake/tsunami, and dealing with the loss of colleagues from the missing Malaysian airlines flight. (You might be able to see CEO Gregg Lowe's brief opening remarks about it here. I can't get the video to load.) The company certainly handled it with class at Freescale Tech Forum earlier this year. (All the employess has the orange ribbons on at the show.)